Educational Careers, Returning to School, and Work-Family Concerns
Author(s):
- Andrew J. Hostetler
Document type: Encyclopedia Entry
Appears in: Work and Family Encyclopedia
Year: 2008
Topic:
- Career(s)
- Demographics
- Economy
- Roles
Discipline:
- Gender Studies
- Labor Studies
- Psychology
Abstract:
To date, research on returning to school has primarily addressed three questions: Who returns and why, how do they do as students, and how does returning impact their lives? This entry will focus mainly on the first and third questions, as they are particularly relevant to the intersection of work and family careers. Unfortunately, relatively little longitudinal research has been conducted on these topics, and no studies to date have provided a comprehensive developmental portrait of return-to-school pathways. Nevertheless, past research has identified many of the factors that appear to predict work-to-school transitions, and other research has explored potential short- and long-term consequences of reenrollment. This research is reviewed below, following a brief summary of some of the demographic characteristics of returning students.